Man City 5 (Haaland 12 pen, 35, 45 pen & 54, Alvarez 85) Wolves 1 (Hwang 53)
Wolves were swept aside at the Etihad, as the seemingly champions elect Manchester City ruthlessness saw off an Old Gold side without Gary O’Neil in the technical area.
Erling Haaland scored four on the night. Two first half penalties, following fouls by Rayan Ait-Nouri and Nelson Semedo, were punctuated by a guided header from the league’s top scorer, as City went in for the break cruising.
Hee Chan Hwang momentarily had Wolves back in the contest when he pounced on an Ederson mistake, but Haaland instantly restored the hosts’ three-goal advantage less than a minute later and Julian Alvarez completed the scoring late on, as Wolves lost on their penultimate away day of the campaign.
When facing Manchester City, keeping it tight early on is essential, but after 11 minutes the hosts were handed the opportunity to take the lead from the spot. Ait-Nouri was late to Josko Gvardiol, who had taken his shot, but was clattered by the Wolves man. Up stepped Haaland to send Sa the wrong way and claim goal number one of his first-half hat-trick.
When a strong hand from Jose Sa kept out Haaland’s header, City were on top, but Wolves did enjoy a period of possession. Their confidence began to grow and Hwang had glimpses of goal, coming close to connecting with deliveries from both Matheus Cunha and Nelson Semedo, but Ederson remained untested.
However, City were in the mood, looking like they were on their way to a fifth successive title, so when Cunha gave the ball away in a dangerous area, he was punished as Rodri trotted clear and whipped in a cross for Haaland to nod home.
It got worse in injury time too, as a long ball over the top sent Haaland scampering clear, and he was brought down Semedo. It looked a clear penalty, with the Wolves man clipping Haaland, but Craig Pawson required a VAR check to make the decision. Up stepped Haaland, who went to Sa’s right again, and although the goalkeeper did too, the strike was too powerful.
Half-time | Man City 3-0 Wolves
Five minutes after the interval, Wolves were thanking their goalkeeper, with Sa getting down low to deny Foden, and for a moment they were back in the game.
The Old Gold worked the ball to half-time substitute Jean-Ricner Bellegarde down the right and his cross tempted Ederson out, but the goalkeeper didn’t connect firmly, and Hwang was perfectly placed to knock the loose ball into the net.
However, that joy was extremely short lived and less than a minute later City restored their three-goal advantage. Foden clipped the ball over the top for Haaland, whose touch was perfect and finish deadly, whipped into the far corner beyond Sa.
The goalkeeper wasn’t having a bad game though, and he brilliantly denied the Norwegian another, producing a strong hand to turn over his powerful strike, and he did the same to keep out Mateo Kovacic’s effort.
However, he would be beaten a fifth time before the evening was up. Toti’s heavy touch left him in trouble and his second touch was a tackle, which fell perfectly for Rodri to slip in Alvarez to do the left, hitting across himself left footed for City’s fifth and final goal.
Full-time | Man City 5-1 Wolves
Man City | Ederson, Walker, Akanji, Ake (Stones 69), Gvardiol, Rodri, Kovacic, De Bruyne (Nunes 79), Silva (Doku 80), Foden (Grealish 80), Haaland (Alvarez 82).
Unused subs | Ortega, Dias, Gomez, Lewis.
Wolves | Sa, Ait-Nouri, Semedo, Kilman, Toti, H Bueno (S Bueno 71), Traore, Lemina (Bellegarde 45), Gomes, Hwang ( Chirewa 87), Cunha (Sarabia 76).
Unused subs | Bentley, Doherty, Gonzalez, Okoduwa, Fraser.
